I'm gonna purchase a sound board that will mostly be used for backuping old MiniDisc recordings. So logically I need to know if the hardware can ignore Serial Copy Management System bits. The card should also have MIDI I/O. ATM I'm considering ESI Juli@ and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 w/ an optical-to-coax converter, but am willing to look into other choices. What are your suggestions?

There are cheaper soundcards based on C-Media 8738/8768 chips (starting $15) and a very nice driver project.

For the details see this topic: Homebrew CMI 8738 drivers
and the official homepage: Open Source WDM Drivers for C-Media 8738/8768 based soundcards

Edit. If I recall correctly, there are newer Hi-MD units that allow transfers from user-recorded MDs to PC via USB connection.

I've had good service from my M-Audio Delta DiO 2496. It's got both coax and optical in/out, so you wouldn't need an external converter, but it has no analog input. I don't know of any other differences.

It certainly ignores SCMS, and you can set SCMS output to whatever you want. I think you can even route digital input to output and have it strip SCMS, but I've never needed this because I have an external stripper.

You could also consider the E-MU 0404. Less than $100, Midi I/O, no SCMS, amazing measures/features and the most flexible driver interface you can think of.

Thank you for your replies.

E-MU 0404 looks good if I can believe the specifications. I'm gonna check if this board is available where I live. Does it have an (unofficial) driver for Windows 98?


I have way too much MD gear already at my workplace.

That E-MU card, I believe, has been out for less than a year and Win98 support has been gone for some similar period. That doesn't mean the manufacturer couldn't do a Win98 driver but if their specs don't claim Win98, I would not get my hopes up. Drivers for many cards are so complex that it isn't unusual for the manufacturer to take a year to get them all sorted out, so the possibility of someone else retrofitting for an extinct OS isn't likely to be high.

I have received and successfully installed an E-MU 0404. It works properly and is easy to use once you understand the emulated mixing board "DSP patch". Thank you all who have read this thread.